GENEVA (Reuters) - Elephants and other wildlife damage millions of
dollars' worth of poor farmers' crops each year, which could be avoided
with proper fencing and better land use, a leading environmental group
said on Wednesday.

The Swiss-based WWF, formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund, said
wild elephants cost Namibian communal farmers $1 million a year, and up
to a quarter of the household incomes of poor farming families in Nepal.

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Indonesian palm oil companies and other agri-businesses can also
lose significant income from elephant encroachment and efforts to keep
them off farms, according to WWF.

"Governments could save human lives and millions of dollars in crop
and income losses for the rural poor through better consideration of
the needs of wildlife," it said in a report describing the competition
between wild elephants and people for land, food and water in Nepal,
Indonesia and Namibia.

The increasing human population and destruction of animal habitats
by global warming mean people and wildlife were living closer together
than ever before, often creating serious problems.

"When wildlife lose their natural habitats and have reduced access
to natural food sources, they eat agricultural crops, livestock, and
can destroy property and can injure or kill people," the WWF report
found.

Many communities capture or kill animals in retaliation for such
damage, threatening biodiversity in already vulnerable and impoverished
areas, the conservation group said.

Namibian crop enterprises located near unfenced wildlife habitats
can be "entirely economically unviable", the WWF said, recommending
that farms be set up as far from such areas as possible. Governments
should not offer incentives for farming in areas near wildlife zones,
it said.

Farmers in Nepal experienced more crop damage when nearby forests
are sparse, the study found. The WWF also concluded that in Riau,
Indonesia, human deaths from elephants have been most frequent in
heavily deforested areas.

In addition to reducing wildlife habitats, the WWF said declining
forest cover in Riau would make it difficult for the region to
capitalize on its carbon-rich peat swamp forests, an important future
source of globally exchanged carbon credits.

"There are many land uses that do not attract wildlife and can act
as buffers," the WWF said, noting that certain plants serve to deter
wild elephants and other animals who would otherwise destroy
agricultural crops.

It also called for increased cooperation between government
divisions, the agricultural industry and the forestry sector to ensure
that farmlands and human settlements are planned in a way that
minimizes damage to wildlife, and vice versa.